Run, run, run, run!!
Using the Gale as a tailwind, I pushed my augmented legs to their limit and kicked off the earth.
Chasing the sinking sun, I accelerated until I was overtaking cars, racing toward my destination without pause.
"...!"
The message had originated from the district where the convenience store robber had been found. It was an area that still hadn't been fully reconstructed; with its lack of people and abundance of ruins and rubble, it was the perfect place for those with a past to hide.
Even if something happened, a person should have been able to escape in a place with so many hiding spots. Even after the Syndicate was destroyed, Masao Shimogaki was a survivor—the kind of man who lived shamelessly and peacefully no matter the circumstances.
So he’ll be fine. I forced myself to believe it. He’s okay.
"I see it...!"
I reached the destination less than ten minutes after the message arrived.
It was a particularly deserted corner of an already sparsely populated neighborhood.
Dilapidated houses stood in rows, and a flickering streetlamp barely emitting a faint light illuminated two figures.
A man was slumped against the base of the lamp, while another man with characteristic blue hair was plunging a syringe filled with crimson fluid into him.
As the liquid entered his system, the man's frame underwent a massive, violent change. His flesh bloated, twisting into a grotesque form far beyond human, yet he lay there with limbs splayed out powerlessly like charred wood.
My blood reached its boiling point.
I knew him. The man who had just been turned into a Kaijin—I knew him!
".........!!!!"
"What!?"
A wind strong enough to lift a body off the ground blew the blue-haired man back, and I rushed into the space where he had been standing.
"Old man! Shimogaki!"
There was no response.
The Kaijin remained silent.
"Hey there, kid. That thing is a Kaijin. It's dangerous, so stay back."
I could feel no heartbeat from the unmoving body.
I touched the flesh that was supposed to be wreathed in flames and heat, but I felt only the sensation of cold metal.
"...You're wrong."
"What?"
"This person isn't a Kaijin. He's just a Combatant...!"
Shimogaki took pride in being a Combatant and held respect for the Kaijin.
I knew because I had been told over and over again what a Kaijin was supposed to be. Shimogaki would never have become one willingly; a body forcibly remade like this was nothing but a final insult.
"...Ah, I see. So you're an acquaintance of his. You gave me a scare—I thought I'd been spotted by a witness."
Sensing my relationship with Shimogaki from my rage-filled gaze, the man stripped away his facade of a "good guy."
"Honestly, if you were coming, you should have said so. Since I've already killed him, he's useless as a hostage."
"So it really was you, you bastard."
"He just wouldn't listen. No matter what I asked, he was so noisy with his 'I don't know' and 'I won't do it.' I just got tired of it."
With every word the man spoke, I felt my body temperature spike.
My heart burned with a searing heat.
"You're a Hero, aren't you? Why are you doing this?"
I knew this man. He was Urakawa, the Hero reported to have captured the convenience store robber. He was also the one who had rushed to the hotel incident first.
"Someone like you probably wouldn't understand, but being a Hero is hard work. Climbing the ranks requires popularity and a track record."
"Popularity?"
"Exactly. You need it to make money as a Hero. But no matter how many petty cases you solve, you can't compete with the Heroes of old who defeated Dark Matter."
"So you're using us."
"You're perfect for it. You have massive weaknesses, yet you aren't that strong. There's no other garbage as exploitable as you lot. With a little threat, you'll turn a small spark into a giant firework."
Combatants were undeniably villains. Even if they were killed, the public would only be grateful. Hatred for Dark Matter was deeply ingrained in society.
If they were told they would be overlooked if they cooperated, or killed if they didn't, they had no choice but to comply.
"Was the hotel your doing as well?"
"Oh? You figured it out? It was quite a lot of work to set up, but that idiot went and lost to a single injured person. Thanks to that, the masterpiece scenario where I become a super-popular Hero went down the drain."
This is a Hero?
A fool who tries to gain popularity by solving incidents he staged himself was calling himself a Hero without a shred of guilt.
"You're quite the talker."
"It's easier to spit these things out to someone than to bottle them up. It's not like you can do anything about it once you've heard it anyway."
When Urakawa snapped his fingers, five spheres of water about the size of soccer balls appeared around him.
A water-manipulation Ability. I see—so that's why I've been seeing fire Kaijin so often lately. To a man who can manipulate water, fire is an easy opponent.
The recent Kaijin were likely using the substances this man had secretly diverted from the Syndicate supplies he'd seized.
"Now then, why don't you cooperate? You don't want to end up like that idiot there, do you?"
"...What?"
"I told him to give me information on his acquaintances, but he stubbornly refused. No matter how much I hurt him, he just kept insisting he didn't know anything. And yet, in the end, he called out for you... what a moron. It was all for nothing."
"Yeah, you're right. He's a moron. A real damn moron."
My hands clenched instinctively.
My nails dug into my palms, and I used the sharp pain to suppress the overflowing rage.
"He should have just sold me out...! He said so himself. Even though he was weaker than me...! That damn moron...!"
He’d said it, hadn't he? That if it came down to it, he would sell me out. So why did he protect me even at the cost of his own life?
Even if he had sold me to a guy like this, I could have handled it. So why...?
"...!"
I don't know why Shimogaki chose to protect me. But it was a fact that, until the very end, he valued my safety more than his own life.
"...You plan to use this guy, don't you?"
I pointed at the Kaijin's corpse.
"Of course."
"Then I can't let that happen."
My reason to fight is right here.
"This guy is a bona fide villain who couldn't complain even if he was killed."
If he were struck down by a real Hero, he'd have no right to complain.
If he were killed in an act of revenge by a victim, it would be expected.
Given what Shimogaki had done, it was only natural for him to die.
"But... a piece of scum like you doesn't have the right to use his life...!"
However, being exploited by a piece of trash who only calls himself a Hero is a different story.
"What, revenge? Don't tell me you intend to fight?"
From one of the water spheres floating around the man, a high-pressure Water Flow was fired at my feet.
The thin stream of water pulverized the concrete, carving a deep trench. He had four more of those.
"Do you understand the difference in our power now? You aren't even in my league."
"You're right about that."
It was exactly as the man said. This wasn't a fight.
The only ones who can fight Kaijin are Heroes or other Kaijin.
There is no Hero before me. There is only a piece of scum.
In that case, what is about to happen is not a fight. It is a one-sided massacre by a Kaijin.
"I declare your end—your Owari—right here."
I would reveal everything I was.
"Transform."
With the word, I released the power I had kept locked inside my body. The unleashed energy became a black light, soaring high into the sky with me at its center.
A Jet-black torrent darker than darkness painted over the night sky. The wind raged, and the earth screamed.
The streetlamp that had been barely flickering shattered, and the ruins around us were ground into piles of rubble.
"—■■ Kaijin, ■■■."
The black light exploded outward. Emerging from the torrent of power was a Jet-black Kaijin, dark to the core.
Unlike other Kaijin, it didn't deviate greatly from a human form; it was a black humanoid clad in thin armor. To be called a Kaijin, it looked almost plain.
Its few distinctive features were the black cloth wrapped around its neck like a muffler and two crimson eyes that burned through the darkness.
"Wha—What?! What are you?!"
"I have no name for scum like you."
I only tell my name to those I acknowledge.
"You will end by being trampled by a Kaijin whose name you don't even know. That is your conclusion."
"D-Don't screw with me!"
I took the four high-pressure Water Flows head-on.
"...What?"
The Water Flows that had easily crushed concrete did nothing. They were overwhelmingly insufficient. This level of force couldn't even leave a scratch on my body.
After all, I am the Ultimate Weapon created by the Syndicate. The strongest Kaijin.
"Eh?"
With just one step, the man lost sight of me.
I appeared behind him as he stood there pathetically, and I swung my right hand toward his left arm.
"Aaaagh—!?!? My arm! My arm!"
Heroes are sturdy. Even after being sent flying into the rubble like a ball, he survived, rolling around while clutching his mangled left arm.
"I'm pretty good, right? I'm actually quite skilled at holding back."
I wouldn't use my special abilities. I would carve the terror of a Kaijin into him with pure, physical violence alone.
With everything remaining shrouded in mystery, being one-sidedly trampled would be this man's Owari.
"Try to resist, self-proclaimed Hero."